Never-before-published family documents and new interviews enhance this detailed biography of quirky, legendary baseball player-turned-manager Casey Stengel, who led the New York Yankees to eight pennants and was known for keeping a live sparrow under his hat during ball games. Other ballplayers, like Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle, appear throughout, and while the focus is on baseball, author Marty Appel chronicles Stengel's full life off the field as well (including a brief, pre-baseball stint in dentistry).

Frustrated by long hours at her computer, tech reporter (and amateur wine drinker) Bianca Bosker decided to go big: she quit her job in order to try becoming a master sommelier. Her in-depth study (which included a job hauling wine at a New York restaurant) took her from elite tasting groups to massive California vineyards and introduced her to brand new ways of thinking about wine. Even casual wine drinkers will appreciate Bosker's insight into wine-tasting, but beer lovers, there's a book for you too: Lucy Burningham's tale of a year spent preparing for her Master Cicerone certification, My Beer Year.

Beginning in 1947, Hollywood came intense scrutiny by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), which was looking into alleged communist influences in Hollywood; ultimately hundreds of directors, actors, and screenwriters were blacklisted or boycotted by risk-averse studios. In High Noon, author Glenn Frankel explores the era through the production of the film by the same name. During the shoot, screenwriter Carl Foreman came under fire from HUAC, but he wasn't the only one affected by the political climate. Check it out if you're interested in the link between film and politics.

Along with his pal Tommy Chong, Cheech Marin came to represent the stoner movement in the 1970s thanks to successful comedy tours, albums, and movies. Long a counterculture icon, Marin describes his coming of age during this dynamic period in history as well as his now-defunct partnership with Chong, and shares stories from his solo career. Now known as a well-respected collector of Chicano art, Marin offers an "enjoyable and insightful autobiography" (Publishers Weekly).

Larger-than-life Canadian YouTuber Lilly Singh has landed on "influencer" lists in publications ranging from Forbes and Time to Vogue and People, mostly thanks to her comedic ||Superwoman|| videos. But this isn't a memoir. Rather, it's a collection of the lessons that Singh learned on her way to finding success: divided into four sections, How to Be a Bawse is engineered to help you have an epic life both personally and professionally. Written with both humor and candor, Singh offers herself as a (very relatable) personal trainer, providing guidance for the hard work ("No escalators. There are only stairs") necessary to get there.

For 130 years, Sherlock Holmes has been the world's best-known and most-loved fictional detective. Between 1887, when Sir Author Conan Doyle created him, and today, when his updated adventures in the BBC television series, Sherlock, brought him a new generation of fans, there have been plays, parodies, movies, and shelves upon shelves of novels featuring the great detective. In his enthusiastic uncovering of all things Sherlock, author Zach Dundas tours the sites of the original stories, shares little-known information about Conan Doyle, and visits the museum at 221b Baker Street. For more dirt on literary detectives, try Melanie Rehak's Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her.

Once the head of the Alfred A. Knopf publishing house, Robert Gottlieb edited The New Yorker in the wake of contentious takeover; his career also landed him on the board of the New York City Ballet. Having worked with such notables as Lauren Bacall, John Cheever, Bill Clinton, George Balanchine, and Michael Crichton, this thoughtful (and star-studded) memoir offers a captivating peek into the publishing world. Follow this literary read with Michael Korda's Another Life.

Marvel Comics originated in 1939, when publisher Marvin Goodman reluctantly expanded his pulp magazine business into the new field of comic books. But the brand didn't really take off until 1961, when writer Stan Lee and artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko helped create Marvel's most well-known characters. In this in-depth, meticulously researched, and "scintillating history" (Publishers Weekly), Entertainment Weekly editor Sean Howe delves into the tangled and contentious personal relationships among Marvel's talented stable of editors, writers, and artists; also taking center stage are their creations, like Captain America and Spider-Man.

Ever wanted to know what leading cultural figures like Malcolm Gladwell, Judd Apatow, Alice Waters, or James Patterson think about reading? Here's your chance to find out. In My Ideal Bookshelf, dozens of influential men and women define the books that mattered most to them as they began to make names for themselves. If the reading habits of famous people interest you, you can also learn all about the favorite bookstores of 84 different authors in My Bookstore, edited by Ronald Rice.